Archive for February 29th, 2012

The office building E is the very last piece of development completing the northern part of the BB Center complex along Vyskocilova (street) and a ramp to 5.května (street). So, towards the city centre the bldg. E closes the planned “protection shield” against the negative impact of city highway traffic on residential houses planned for the second phase of development. This part of the Prague-Michle district has now been revitalized, reintroducing the urban environment with multiple functions and restoring it the way it was before the highway – 5.května street – completely destroyed it.

The building is crossed by a transverse axis with two main entrances: one from the west at the level of Ayerbe’s walkway (through the second floor) and the other from the east (through the ground floor). From this axis, including the staircase and the lift, start, in the three upper floors, corridors parallel to the façade.

The Pfizer Canada reconfiguration project makes a very clear statement. The architectural design focuses on promoting the corporate identity of the company located on the Trans-Canada Highway. The strategy is to use the building space in a transparent and expeditious manner through the prominence of glass in the structure in order to open the corporate headquarters to the world. To ensure a corporate image that is solidly embedded in the site, we worked around the idea of blister packs. This important feature of bio-pharmaceutical production is used as the visual key for the completion of the building facade, walls and furnishings.

Redefining the conventional office space, apbcOffices were designed to create a calming and tranquil environment; inspired by nature and tinged with an element of surprise. Located in the bustling city’s main shopping, entertainment and tourism district, the new serviced office occupies the 16th floor of The Pavilion Tower at 10,473 square feet, incorporating natural materials to provide a comforting yet conducive working environment.

Faced with the Burgo estuary, along the new promenade stand proud of the old factory Cros structures. The first phase project includes the decontamination of structures and terrain as well as a complete renovation. To undertake this phase structures were settled with pine wooden form work and the roof was recovered ceramic tiles.

The project by the young architectural studio Urban plunger has been recently awarded the third prize in the Night Club Hotel in Hong Kong international competition. The main idea is to create a suspended building structure to comply with the extremely compact planning in Hong Kong. The whole structure is elevated above the ground by leaning on the nearby buildings.

In reality, ecological strategies often generate an over-production of materials, becoming energy-vores and clients of factories, the polluters of the world. The real ecological combat is within the re-appropriation of materials and experimentation’s with ready-made objects, far from the so-called benevolence of subsidized agencies. The student housing on rue Amelot is a project that inserts itself into an urban interstice: the thickness of a blind wall.

Each and every project realized by Leonardo da Vinci, whether a building or a model airplane, was inspired by the human body. As such, this gym on the outskirts of Sesto Fiorentino, near Florence, can be considered a tribute to Leonardo’s work and genius. The copper plates covering the exterior of the gym makes the building look like muscle fiber. Thanks to the nail-less mounting, the plates are free to move and expand in accordance with one of copper’s key characteristic.

When I first started working on this project I happened to be visiting Eero Saarinen’s School of Music in Ann Harbor. Even though the building is interesting, it struck me as odd that no music could be heard in the passageways, not even in the common spaces. At about the same time I watched a documentary about the Music Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, it was an old colonial house filled with people, joy and music. For this project, I wanted to push to the limits the possibility of acoustic excellence – and also the seclusion and soundproofing of every space, as well as convey the conviviality and extroversion particular to certain musical practices.